President Obama went on to praise the likes of TechShop, and its newer workshop competitors, as being at the forefront of what he sees as the continuing strong recovery of the US's manufacturing sector.

The hacker spaces and TechShop are part of what has been described as a “maker movement,” basically a surge in do-it-yourself behavior that is at least partly a reaction against the banality of mass-produced goods.

If making things is going to become big business again in Washington, ground zero may be a shop class playground for adults that will open in Crystal City this month ... This is the eighth outpost nationally of TechShop ...

Mark Hatch, CEO of a chain of maker spaces called TechShop, says the old model meant that an entrepreneur had to spend $100,000 or more to produce a prototype for a new product. Now it's a fraction of that.

At the original TechShop in Menlo Park, Calif., Buckley learned how to slice up large sheets of bamboo into smaller pieces and how to fasten them together and smooth them down to make a retro case for the iPad. The result was the DODOcase.

#16. Mark Hatch & Jim Newton, TechShop: If you want to see inventors launching companies alongside hobbyists building birthday gifts, step inside one of the eight TechShops that Hatch and Newton have opened so far. They are creating spaces where people can tinker ... all for a $125 monthly membership fee.

In Pittsburgh, Mr. Obama’s focus will be on jobs and the economy as he visits TechShop, a company that provides tools and work space for people to get creative, to talk about the importance of innovation.

Obama visited this venerable steel manufacturing city to showcase a workshop chain called TechShop, a variation on a tool lending library that provides high-end instruments to hobbyists, tinkerers and start-up businesses to help them realize their innovations.

Taking TechShop as an example, COO Dan Woods cites that the total valuation of products that have been launched out of TechShop facilities is estimated at $10 billion ... For Woods, the combination of the tools, resources, and – most importantly – connections found at maker spaces is what will enable further innovation.

After a week in the homeless shelter, Roth found a flier for TechShop ... two years later, Roth lives in an apartment with his family, owns his own successful business and helps his city's mayor tackle San Francisco's monstrous homelessness epidemic.